Well, let's be clear about the context of my comments. A purported list of great books is heavy on American fiction, and I use Harper Lee's work as an example of something that is good (perhaps even great within the American canon, which I'm not sure of) but not worthy of being called great when we look at literature more broadly.

Regardless, we are wasting a bunch of time here. Here's a simple illustration of my point:

To Kill a Mockingbird is regularly covered in elementary school or high school English. The Sound and The Fury, or Walden, or Moby Dick...these are the caliber of works that are still worthy of extensive literary study at a doctoral level. Admittedly, one has a broader audience than the others, but I do kind of expect that of many masterpieces, literary or otherwise.

If you're interested in reading Faulkner, I think that his short stories are probably the most accessible. His "stream of consciousness" style of writing is not easily penetrated by all readers, but it's not too difficult, either. The short stories, like "A Rose for Emily", have his trademark Southern viewpoint and are a little bit easier to start with than his longer writing.

I think i might check out the Sound and the Fury.

But i still disagree that because they were written for different audiences it minimizes its greatness whether at a national level or a worldly level.

I personally have a hard time with them, as my mind gets distracted by whatever I'm distracted by at the time. They're not too bad in a car, but even then I feel like I'm missing details while talking, working, staring out the window, etc.

I personally have a hard time with them, as my mind gets distracted by whatever I'm distracted by at the time. They're not too bad in a car, but even then I feel like I'm missing details while talking, working, staring out the window, etc.

World War Z I believe won awards for thier audio book. Read by several celebrities. Mark Hamill, Alan Alda, and John Turturro. The book is done in an interview style. So I am assuming each chapter is a different voice. I think it could work with that sort of book.

I am listening to the hunger games audio book, I dont really get distracted with it, but if i do i simply reverse it back a bit. I have it saved in my phone so i can listen to it when i have free time, mostly in the ttc or before going to sleep in the evening.

still have to finish two other books before i get started on plantinga's work. i hear he's a brilliant philosopher, so i need to learn myself the basics of philosophy beforehand

Read it with a critical eye. He is a very prestigious philosopher, but that also means there's a good chance that he's wrong about something in some respect. His argument centers on internal conflicts in naturalism, arguing that science and theism jive more naturally than science and naturalism. There's lots to start with on the net if you look for it. I'd love to hear what you think.

Another thought on ebooks: they take me too long to finish compared to reading.

first and second book were books of drawing the audience in, while basing the book around a dystopic feel. This way, there would be maximum audience by the third book, which did occur.

third book was incredible, I thoroughly enjoyed it. Some great thoughts on human emotion, human tendencies, all the while keeping it pulling, albeit not as much as the first and second book as some cover reads complained. Because of the third book, I have massive respect for the author who developed the character incredibly through the first two books, while drawing in an audience, so her takes on human nature could be heard more widely. genious in my opinion.

due to the third book, and the overall tactic of the first two books, I give the trilogy a solid 8/10, with my favourite book, the alchemist, being the dicatator at a solid 10/10.

The third book was actually a pretty forced, boring read. It seemed like Collins was trying to come up with some ending that she didn't know how to get too and I didn't enjoy reading it near as much as the first two.

That's a pretty dramatic change from the 4/10 you previously rated it at.

The third book was actually a pretty forced, boring read. It seemed like Collins was trying to come up with some ending that she didn't know how to get too and I didn't enjoy reading it near as much as the first two.

That's a pretty dramatic change from the 4/10 you previously rated it at.

Read it with a critical eye. He is a very prestigious philosopher, but that also means there's a good chance that he's wrong about something in some respect. His argument centers on internal conflicts in naturalism, arguing that science and theism jive more naturally than science and naturalism. There's lots to start with on the net if you look for it. I'd love to hear what you think.

Another thought on ebooks: they take me too long to finish compared to reading.

i got the two books from dostoevsky recently: crime and punishment and the one you recommended in this thread before, the brothers karamazov. now i don't know which book to start lol

this is easily one of the oddest 'novels' i have read, and intentionally so. i don't have the vocabulary and cultural knowledge (nor the time for analysis) to really understand everything that is going on in this book, but it's worth it simply for how funny it is, and how ridiculous it is. anyone who wants to take a bite out of popular culture and is happy reading a pretty indulgent book should give this one a go. here's a brief synopsis i pulled from another forum. i have no idea who wrote the synopsis, but it's pretty good considering that the plot is not really describable.

Quote:

"Tetherballs," like all of Leyner's books, features its author as its main character -- or rather a version of "Mark Leyner" who's like an unchained, unholy amalgam of raging id and grandiose ego, drunk on pop culture and capable of mimicking its many degraded voices at will. As dazzlingly hilarious as Leyner's other books, "Tetherballs" is also the closest to, as Leyner puts it, "a bona fide novel." Its first part describes the failed execution of the fictional 13-year-old Leyner's father ("My father is not an evil person. He just can't do PCP socially"), who is then resentenced to New jersey State Discretionary Execution: The state lets him go, but reserves the right to kill him at any moment. Unfazed, the adolescent Mark proceeds to seduce the glamorous female prison warden, despite the fact that he needs to write a screenplay overnight so that the next day he can accept the Vincent and Lenore DiGiacomo/Oshimitsu Polymers America Award for best screenplay written by a student at Maplewood Junior High School (the prize being $250,000 a year for life). How did he win the award without actually submitting the screenplay first? "That's the advantage of having a powerful agent."

The rest of "Tetherballs of Bougainville" consists of the screenplay itself, which simply records Mark's druggy tryst with the warden in her office. Of course, the screenplay includes the reading aloud of a long review/plot synopsis of the as-yet-unmade "Tetherballs of Bougainville" movie, which takes young Mark to the Solomon Islands where he sets up a PR agency for "dictators, warlords, corrupt corporations and criminal cartels from around the world" with his partner, Polo, a genetically altered Bonobo chimp with a secret identity. And that's the short version.

this is easily one of the oddest 'novels' i have read, and intentionally so. i don't have the vocabulary and cultural knowledge (nor the time for analysis) to really understand everything that is going on in this book, but it's worth it simply for how funny it is, and how ridiculous it is. anyone who wants to take a bite out of popular culture and is happy reading a pretty indulgent book should give this one a go. here's a brief synopsis i pulled from another forum. i have no idea who wrote the synopsis, but it's pretty good considering that the plot is not really describable.

I laughed a lot while reading "Et Tu, Babe". Sounds like Leyner found a certain style of writing and stuck with it.